Matt Vasgersian made it clear: He would rather live in La Jolla than Manhattan. But sometimes it's more complicated than that.

Which is why Vasgersian is leaving Channel 4 San Diego for a job as MLB Network's first studio host. The Major League Baseball-owned network, which will be based in Secaucus, N.J., just outside New York, will launch Jan. 1 in approximately 50 million cable and satellite homes.

“I was inventing excuses not to take the job because I didn't want to leave San Diego or Southern California,” said Vasgersian, the TV voice of the Padres from 2002-08. “But it kept getting better and better. It became clear I couldn't say no.”

Vasgersian said he expects to host the first four hours of a six-hour show every weeknight that will be “kind of like (ESPN's) 'Baseball Tonight' in theory, but I'd like to think we'll do it differently.

“ESPN set the standard for that stuff, and we'd all be fools if we thought we could knock ESPN off the dial. What's exciting about this for me, as a consumer I'm frustrated sometimes watching 'SportsCenter,' you've got to wait to get all your baseball. This is all things baseball.

“I feel like I have some ownership in it going in on the ground floor.”

Vasgersian said another factor was he had grown weary of the travel involved in being a team broadcaster for 18 straight years, the past 12 in the big leagues.

“I love the fact I'll be off the road now,” he said. “I've been pushing in that direction, to do fewer games that were travel games.”

Vasgersian also will have to give up his job with Fox Sports as a play-by-play man in baseball and football, although he will be allowed to finish the current NFL season and work the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 5. He will start at MLB Network a few days later.

As for Vasgersian's replacement, Channel 4 Vice President and General Manager Craig Nichols said he's already started a national search. One person not expected to be a candidate is Steve Quis, a pregame and postgame host who did play-by-play in Vasgersian's absence the past couple of years. His role at the station is likely to remain the same, Nichols said.